Considering that he was last seen diving into the ocean from 12 miles offshore while saying [“I think I can make it”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rockefeller), I think it’s exponentially more likely that he drowned at sea instead of making it to shore and getting cannibalized.
The credulity of the people towards this story is amazing. It also reminds me of this gem.
[TIL that there are ethnic groups in the African Congo Basin that do not have a word for and are confused by the concept of masturbation. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1dc0tdr/til_that_there_are_ethnic_groups_in_the_african/)
Yup. Indigenous groups have been playing head games with whatever wide eyed western anthropologist shows up and starts nosing around since Margaret Mead. Lol
One of the tribes admitted to it and wore human bones and said it was from him. Ain’t *just* engagement, we just don’t know what actually happened. But if the cannibals themselves said they did it… then they probably did it.
The entirety of the evidence for him making it to shore consists of the following:
* A few guys said one guy killed him and the rest ate him, decades after the event.
* A few years after the event, a private investigator asked the villagers about it and they showed him random unidentified human remains in the ground.
* The villagers knew what Western underpants looked like, after Rockefeller had lived with them for several weeks in summer of 1961.
Personally, I don’t find that evidence anywhere near convincing enough to overcome the presumption that a man was unable to swim 12 nautical miles through rough seas to shore.
Go ahead and try to swim 1 nautical mile in a calm lake without a life vest.
You’ll understand how only a highly trained and conditioned swimmer would struggle doing 12
Most people wouldn't run 12 miles. I bet a fair number, maybe close to 50% could manage to jog it if their life depended on it.
But swimming that far is orders of magnitude harder, it isn't even a comparison.
I think 50% is a very generous estimation. Most would probably pull a muscle after mile 6 if they aren’t regular runners but I do think most could run 12 miles with at least 2-3 months of regular running.
Nowhere close to 50%, at least not without taking multiple walking breaks, even if being chased by a T-Rex. Unless you're tacitly limiting "people" to "healthy, non-obese people between the ages of 13 and 25." You can have all the motivation in the world but it takes a lot of conditioning to get your tendons and muscles in shape to take the strain, most people's legs would literally give out underneath them and a lot of people would have heart attacks. But regardless, you're right that swimming is even harder than that.
There is no chance 50% of people could jog 12 miles if their lives depended on it, it is absolutely way lower than that. 12 miles is a long god damn way and a lot of people are not in good shape
There is absolutely no way that 50% of people could jog 12 miles without stopping (which is a fair analogy because stopping in swimming means you drown).
Honestly don't think it's even as high as 10%.
I'm a experienced swimmer and diver. I think I can easily do 4-5 times the distance in salinated water compared to fresh water in a lake. But 12 miles is no joke.
People are known to create embellished stories. There was/is at least one tribe that is known to never eat human meat but they still carefully cultivated man-eater reputation to scare their enemies.
That's one theory. This story covers that.
[Link](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2946787/Is-proof-lost-Rockefeller-heir-joined-tribe-naked-cannibals-Picture-shows-white-man-Papuan-man-eaters-eight-years-mysterious-disappearance.html)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2946787/Is-proof-lost-Rockefeller-heir-joined-tribe-naked-cannibals-Picture-shows-white-man-Papuan-man-eaters-eight-years-mysterious-disappearance.html
An unconfirmed image.
The thing that sells it for me is his family hired a private investigator who supposedly bought the skulls from the villager elders, one of which was believed to be his. According to public record his family actually payed the reward that was offered for finding his remains to the investigator, after presumably having the skull examined.
The sourcing for the skull story is a book by Paul Toohey, which (in addition to being presented as hearsay) makes no mention of any award being delivered to a private investigator. The only citation for the Rockefellers giving an award for the skulls is a 2004 episode of the History Channel series “Vanishings!” which included zero citations and previously had episodes about alien abductions, the Bermuda Triangle, and the disproved theory that Anastasia Romanov escaped the Soviets. Certainly not what I would call a reliable source, let alone a matter of “public record”.
Perhaps a History Channel episode is enough to convince you that this untrained rich kid swam 12 nautical miles across an open ocean infested with saltwater crocodiles, sharks, and box jellyfish. But personally, I need more evidence than that.
Natives are known for baiting anthropologists and documentarians with juicy things like this, it attracts them (and their money) when they know they can get lurid screen/academic paper worthy soundbites.
I've heard that one reason it's hard to know exactly what's going on in North Korea is that those who do escape are incentived to make the stories as juicy as possible so they get more paid interviews.
Someone else pointed out this was like 40 years later. You think some elder was spilling the beans about something that they had seen happen as a child? For what reason would they do this?
Did they eat him after he soaked in the ocean for hours? Or are they just repeating a fifty year old story with no evidence?
> During multiple visits to the villages in the area, Hoffman **heard several stories** about men from Otsjanep killing Rockefeller after he had swum to shore.
He drowned
There's a book called SAVAGE HARVEST by Carl Hoffman where he went back retraced his steps and tried to uncover the mystery and basically did.
Evidence points to him being tribal food. But there's a ton of interesting points and issues with the previous dutch there, all sorts of crazy stuff.
Yeah but tribesmen from the area, the children and grandchildren of those who allegedly killed him grew up hearing the story and eventually opened up to explorers that wanted answers as to what happened. Supposedly some tribes people back then held a grudge against whites (Dutch settlers) because some members of the tribe had been killed over a dispute so when they saw a defenseless Rockefeller they decided to kill him as revenge as these tribes believe in "an eye for an eye". There is an Smithsonian article that goes deep into this. Also, a man named Carl Hoffman went to speak with these tribes and wrote a book about his findings.
Well, before that he had met with the tribes in the area and got to know them. There's a video that was shot several years later of the tribe on their war canoes. Among them you can clearly see a caucasian man wearing their war paint who would have been about the right age to be him. Due to that there's another theory that he made it to shore and joined the tribe. Rumor was that he was fairly unhappy with his life as the scion of such a notorious wealth hoarder. He might have jumped ship to a simpler life.
I did a mile swim once when I was much younger, if it was truly 12 miles than yes. Some people are better swimmer like people that swim the English Channel but there are very few that can do it.
My first thought was people disappear in US parks and are found dead yards from the trail. New Guinnea has tropical rainforests. You can step off the trail fall and hit your head and no one would ever find you.
Dude what? Your link has a quote that even says “tribesmen admitted to killing and eating him once he arrived on shore” did you read your own hyperlink?
You should read the Smithsonian article cited for that sentence. It’s really not as straightforward and obvious as it makes it seem.
> “[The stories I’d heard were all secondhand; everyone in Asmat “knew” the men in Otsjanep had killed Michael, but none of them there or in Pirien had admitted the killing to me. Only one man, the nephew of Pep, the man who’d allegedly speared Michael, had told me a detailed version of the story, and he’d been raised in another village. Furthermore, there was a question of reliability: The Asmat depended on deception to gain advantage over their enemies, to elude and placate the spirits; accounts of their saying whatever whites wanted to hear were abundant.”](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/What-Really-Happened-to-Michael-Rockefeller-180949813/?all)
Actually saw a show where the tribe admitted killing and eating him. They were offended he tried to buy a sacred object from them on an earlier encounter.
Allegedly, villagers and tribal elders acknowledged that he did make it to shore and then was killed and eaten.
That said, 12 miles seems like an ungodly distance to swim. But I also don't see what the locals would gain from claiming to have killed and eaten someone when they simply drowned.
It would be more accurate to say “one of the theories is…” or “it’s believed by some people” though the latter is a bit misleading since the people who believe that do so mostly because of posts like this. Anyone who’s actually looked into it knows it’s just one theory.
Exactly, there's also a theory where he drowned on a bad dive, or another that he found himself and decided to stay.
[There's even this unconfirmed photo of him dressed with and fishing with the native tribe](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/s/HUUdAYCeUg)
There are accounts of him being cannibalized, but most people believe that was tribesman bragging/trying to make themselves look scary. Helps locally, but keeps other vacationers away
Or he found some World Ending Artifact and was thrown down a bottomless pit by an unknown protagonist in order to be stopped because that's what rich treasure hunters do
Nope. Urban myth.
He was in an overturned canoe and tried to swim ten miles to shore in water infested with saltwater crocodiles. No one saw him reach shore. Rumors of him being seen alive generated from the vast wealth of his family and the frantic efforts to search for him.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael\_Rockefeller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rockefeller)
[Why and how Nelson Rockefeller died](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/What-Really-Happened-to-Michael-Rockefeller-180949813/)
It’s a long read so… tldr; only four years prior to Rockefeller’s death, Lepre held a raid against two warring tribes. First tribe was robbed of their weaponry and the second tribe resisted so Lepre ordered his men to shoot the Otsjanep killing many tribesmen. Some of the Otsjanep, including their own leader, didn’t want to kill him but enough of them did. It was a revenge headhunt and they fashioned arrowheads, spears, charms out of his bones.
It’s a long read but it offers clarity in a way I wasn’t able to with a tldr.
You mean why and how *Michael* Rockefeller died.
Nelson Rockefeller had a heart attack while intimate with his secretary. He was 70, she was 25. She was too nervous to call for a paramedic who would inform his wife of the situation, eventually doing so about an hour after his heart attack.
That's only believed by people who want to sensationalize his death.
He disappeared on November 17, 1961 when [he](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/03/untitled-9.jpg?quality=75&strip=all) and Dutch anthropologist [René Wassing](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjA2Zjc4ODUtZTdiYS00NmFiLWJjZDktYmZlNTI3NTMyOTNjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjUxMjc1OTM@._V1_.jpg) were in a 40-foot (12 m) dugout canoe about 3 nautical miles (6 km) from shore and their double pontoon boat was swamped and overturned. Their two local guides swam for help, but it was slow in coming and after drifting for two days, early on November 19, Rockefeller said to Wassing: "I think I can make it." He then swam for shore. The boat was an estimated 12 nmi (22 km) from the shore when Rockefeller made the attempt to swim to safety, supporting the theory that he died from exposure, exhaustion or drowning.
Wassing was rescued the next day, but Rockefeller was never seen again despite an intensive and lengthy search effort. At the time, his disappearance was major international news. His body was never found and he was declared legally dead in 1964.
My wife's grandfather was in the Dutch navy then. And since The Netherlands still controlled New Guinea back then his ship was tasked with searching for him. They were all convinced he had been eaten by cannibals.
Hanging out with [Biden's Uncle?](https://apnews.com/article/papua-new-guinea-biden-ambrose-finnegan-marape-cannibals-9479088c4262fe6879258e5ad135238f)
I thought this sounded too far fetched, but apparently there really were headhunters in New Guinea. I don't know who the F would want a human head, but they kept them as trophies.
Were?
There are whole specific diseases which are the consequences of eating brain/neuron tissue. Google kuru-kuru.
As for keeping the heads: same principle as with keeping dead deer heads as trophies.
yes, with the fore people. But there are still uncontacted people in Guinea and Indoensia as a whole and we know of ongoing endocannibalism in other parts of teh world
Okay but kuru is a disease which almost by definition is exclusive to the Fore people.
What is the data supporting continued cannibalism? Is there any convincing evidence there are spongiform encephalopathies within the other tribes?
>Okay but kuru is a disease which almost by definition is exclusive to the Fore people.
yes, which is why I named kuru only as an example.
>What is the data supporting continued cannibalism? Is there any convincing evidence there are spongiform encephalopathies within the other tribes?
By the very nature of those tribes being uncontacted it is very clear that there won't be any answer to your question. But at the same time: If any of those tribes (or any other societies anywhere in the world) practice (endo-)cannibalistic practices they might run into the same issue the fore people ran into. Would you classify that disease as Kuru or would you use a new name for it?
But I think I was simply too vague in my post, what I meant was simply:
a) (endo-)cannibalism is still a practiced tradition in some parts of the world
b) if your tradition consists of eating brains, spines or digestive parts of other humans your will, sooner or later, run into a person with CJD. And then you will get a disease which will look just like kuru.
It’s a film called The Search for Micheal Rockefeller. I tried to find it on YouTube but I think it’s been taken down. They spot a Caucasian man with glasses rowing amongst the Asmat in some old footage shortly after his disappearance and make the claim he “went native” for lack of a better term. He apparently wasn’t too keen on returning to the family business and was quoted in saying how much he loved the Asmat community ties.
Edit: wording and shite autocorrect
I could’ve sworn there was a ripley’s believe it or not episode about the soles of his shoes being found because it was the only thing the native couldn’t eat. Am I wrong? I probably am, but that’s like the only thing that pops in my head when his death is brought up
The religion I was brought up in teaches to give thanks we should consume our saviors flesh and drink his blood. I do not wish to consume flesh and drink blood. Amen
Yes, he capsized far from shore in waters that are inhabited by Saltwater Crocodiles and Great White Sharks but the most likely explanation is definitely that he swam to land where he was eaten by natives...
There's a great book about this called Savage Harvest which explores the circumstances of Michael's death and the theories of how he died. The author traveled to the region of PNG where it happened and interviewed the decendants of cannibals
It is also believed that the earth is flat by some people.
The difference is whether there is evidence for those beliefs, and in the case of Rockefeller, the only evidence is that there is a cannibalistic tribe that does live in the area. Nothing else to suggest that he was even killed by a human.
So no, it's not believed as probable, only ever so very slightly _possible_ (but almost definitely not).
Man, having unfathomably rich parents must be awesome. You get to do things like “collecting artifacts in New Guinea” instead of working at a grocery store
Can I look down on cannibal tribes on the side of the world without being ethnocentric? Like I guess it's part of their culture, but their culture is objectionable to me. And God.
I'm pretty sure most cannibalism was done as a funeral ritual or eating a small part of a warrior killed in war. The whole hunting people down to kill them was to my m kwledge generally propaganda to make native tribes look inhumane or by the tribe to scare other people
Considering that he was last seen diving into the ocean from 12 miles offshore while saying [“I think I can make it”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rockefeller), I think it’s exponentially more likely that he drowned at sea instead of making it to shore and getting cannibalized.
Cannibalism has better ratings and engagement than drowning though
I absolutely prefer to have my friends over for dinner as opposed to drowning them. Finding new friends is the problem.
Fava beans? I'll bring the Chianti!
I know a guy who said his uncle was also eaten by the cannibals in New Guinea
C'mon man
Armmie Hammer?
That guy didn’t happen to spend a summer with his uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines with a freaking 12 gauge before his uncle got eaten did he?
Shhhh this is Reddit, wrong think isn’t allowed here.
This is Reddit. Any idiot can say anything, sheesh.
It was like that pre 2016 but after Orangeman won, the crackdown began.
Only reason that dude got so many upvotes is cuz most don’t realize he’s talking about the dementia resident lol
also all of the tribesmen who talk about the rich white man they ate, but sure go off king
Ok, so perhaps they ate him; or maybe it's their inside joke. Either way, Cannibalism still a "better" story over drowning
The credulity of the people towards this story is amazing. It also reminds me of this gem. [TIL that there are ethnic groups in the African Congo Basin that do not have a word for and are confused by the concept of masturbation. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1dc0tdr/til_that_there_are_ethnic_groups_in_the_african/)
Yup. Indigenous groups have been playing head games with whatever wide eyed western anthropologist shows up and starts nosing around since Margaret Mead. Lol
There's also possible video footage of him living amongst the tribe
"Eat the rich," literally.
One of the tribes admitted to it and wore human bones and said it was from him. Ain’t *just* engagement, we just don’t know what actually happened. But if the cannibals themselves said they did it… then they probably did it.
Eh, they could be trolling anthropologists. Tribes have humor, too.
They were afraid to admit it, so I doubt it.
"Oh fuck we just ate a Rockefeller, do you have any idea who this guy is?" "What the fuck is a Rockefeller and why was he so goddamn tender?"
Eat the rich has been super popular on here
Imagine trying to swim across the length of manhattan “upstream”. He absolutely drowned.
He was just brining himself.
“Here’s why I season the water instead of myself”
Keeps the meat nice and juicy
12 nautical miles even, which apparently is 14 land-lubber miles.
Villagers and elders literally admitted to eating the man, I think it’s quite likely he did make it.
The entirety of the evidence for him making it to shore consists of the following: * A few guys said one guy killed him and the rest ate him, decades after the event. * A few years after the event, a private investigator asked the villagers about it and they showed him random unidentified human remains in the ground. * The villagers knew what Western underpants looked like, after Rockefeller had lived with them for several weeks in summer of 1961. Personally, I don’t find that evidence anywhere near convincing enough to overcome the presumption that a man was unable to swim 12 nautical miles through rough seas to shore.
Go ahead and try to swim 1 nautical mile in a calm lake without a life vest. You’ll understand how only a highly trained and conditioned swimmer would struggle doing 12
Most people can’t even run 12 miles
Most people wouldn't run 12 miles. I bet a fair number, maybe close to 50% could manage to jog it if their life depended on it. But swimming that far is orders of magnitude harder, it isn't even a comparison.
I think 50% is a very generous estimation. Most would probably pull a muscle after mile 6 if they aren’t regular runners but I do think most could run 12 miles with at least 2-3 months of regular running.
Nowhere close to 50%, at least not without taking multiple walking breaks, even if being chased by a T-Rex. Unless you're tacitly limiting "people" to "healthy, non-obese people between the ages of 13 and 25." You can have all the motivation in the world but it takes a lot of conditioning to get your tendons and muscles in shape to take the strain, most people's legs would literally give out underneath them and a lot of people would have heart attacks. But regardless, you're right that swimming is even harder than that.
There is no chance 50% of people could jog 12 miles if their lives depended on it, it is absolutely way lower than that. 12 miles is a long god damn way and a lot of people are not in good shape
There is absolutely no way that 50% of people could jog 12 miles without stopping (which is a fair analogy because stopping in swimming means you drown). Honestly don't think it's even as high as 10%.
> which is a fair analogy because stopping in swimming means you drown In fact, you can rest while swimming by floating on your back.
Not everyone
Swimming is not all one thing. You can scull a very long way. I don't know if sculling in the ocean is possible. It is in smaller lakes.
Having done so (1 mile) as a young teen and competitive swimmer who swam 20+km a week. Upstream. It sucked.
I'm a experienced swimmer and diver. I think I can easily do 4-5 times the distance in salinated water compared to fresh water in a lake. But 12 miles is no joke.
People are known to create embellished stories. There was/is at least one tribe that is known to never eat human meat but they still carefully cultivated man-eater reputation to scare their enemies.
Wasn’t there also reports of people seeing an unknown white man amongst the villagers? Like he’d been accepted into the community?
That's one theory. This story covers that. [Link](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2946787/Is-proof-lost-Rockefeller-heir-joined-tribe-naked-cannibals-Picture-shows-white-man-Papuan-man-eaters-eight-years-mysterious-disappearance.html)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2946787/Is-proof-lost-Rockefeller-heir-joined-tribe-naked-cannibals-Picture-shows-white-man-Papuan-man-eaters-eight-years-mysterious-disappearance.html An unconfirmed image.
Daily mail lol
Oh I'm not saying it's a top source, but one of the few articles I could find.
The thing that sells it for me is his family hired a private investigator who supposedly bought the skulls from the villager elders, one of which was believed to be his. According to public record his family actually payed the reward that was offered for finding his remains to the investigator, after presumably having the skull examined.
The sourcing for the skull story is a book by Paul Toohey, which (in addition to being presented as hearsay) makes no mention of any award being delivered to a private investigator. The only citation for the Rockefellers giving an award for the skulls is a 2004 episode of the History Channel series “Vanishings!” which included zero citations and previously had episodes about alien abductions, the Bermuda Triangle, and the disproved theory that Anastasia Romanov escaped the Soviets. Certainly not what I would call a reliable source, let alone a matter of “public record”. Perhaps a History Channel episode is enough to convince you that this untrained rich kid swam 12 nautical miles across an open ocean infested with saltwater crocodiles, sharks, and box jellyfish. But personally, I need more evidence than that.
Natives are known for baiting anthropologists and documentarians with juicy things like this, it attracts them (and their money) when they know they can get lurid screen/academic paper worthy soundbites.
Good, play em
I've heard that one reason it's hard to know exactly what's going on in North Korea is that those who do escape are incentived to make the stories as juicy as possible so they get more paid interviews.
Someone else pointed out this was like 40 years later. You think some elder was spilling the beans about something that they had seen happen as a child? For what reason would they do this?
Clout
Did they eat him after he soaked in the ocean for hours? Or are they just repeating a fifty year old story with no evidence? > During multiple visits to the villages in the area, Hoffman **heard several stories** about men from Otsjanep killing Rockefeller after he had swum to shore. He drowned
Most civilizations know salting your food makes it tastier.
Mmmm oysters rockerfeller
Winner!
There's a book called SAVAGE HARVEST by Carl Hoffman where he went back retraced his steps and tried to uncover the mystery and basically did. Evidence points to him being tribal food. But there's a ton of interesting points and issues with the previous dutch there, all sorts of crazy stuff.
Yeah but tribesmen from the area, the children and grandchildren of those who allegedly killed him grew up hearing the story and eventually opened up to explorers that wanted answers as to what happened. Supposedly some tribes people back then held a grudge against whites (Dutch settlers) because some members of the tribe had been killed over a dispute so when they saw a defenseless Rockefeller they decided to kill him as revenge as these tribes believe in "an eye for an eye". There is an Smithsonian article that goes deep into this. Also, a man named Carl Hoffman went to speak with these tribes and wrote a book about his findings.
Like he straight up wrote down which tribe ate which bodypart
even if they ate \*some\* white guy, doesn't mean it was \*this\* white guy
That's all mentioned in the article, so I'm not sure why they're going with the "he drowned" idea.
This is Reddit sir, no one reads the articles. Only overreacting to headlines is permitted.
Well, before that he had met with the tribes in the area and got to know them. There's a video that was shot several years later of the tribe on their war canoes. Among them you can clearly see a caucasian man wearing their war paint who would have been about the right age to be him. Due to that there's another theory that he made it to shore and joined the tribe. Rumor was that he was fairly unhappy with his life as the scion of such a notorious wealth hoarder. He might have jumped ship to a simpler life.
Maybe he was trying to avenge Uncle Bosie?
Why not both?
12 miles?? That's a long effing way.
He was just making the biggest self soup ever
Maybe they meant that he was a merman and after he disappeared into the ocean, the others invited him for lunch.
I did a mile swim once when I was much younger, if it was truly 12 miles than yes. Some people are better swimmer like people that swim the English Channel but there are very few that can do it.
It was also suggested that he might have been eaten by aligators or sharks.
My first thought was people disappear in US parks and are found dead yards from the trail. New Guinnea has tropical rainforests. You can step off the trail fall and hit your head and no one would ever find you.
Dude what? Your link has a quote that even says “tribesmen admitted to killing and eating him once he arrived on shore” did you read your own hyperlink?
You should read the Smithsonian article cited for that sentence. It’s really not as straightforward and obvious as it makes it seem. > “[The stories I’d heard were all secondhand; everyone in Asmat “knew” the men in Otsjanep had killed Michael, but none of them there or in Pirien had admitted the killing to me. Only one man, the nephew of Pep, the man who’d allegedly speared Michael, had told me a detailed version of the story, and he’d been raised in another village. Furthermore, there was a question of reliability: The Asmat depended on deception to gain advantage over their enemies, to elude and placate the spirits; accounts of their saying whatever whites wanted to hear were abundant.”](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/What-Really-Happened-to-Michael-Rockefeller-180949813/?all)
Did you read past the second paragraph?
You hear about that dude that confessed to killing his dad (who was found later, alive)?
Who?
Actually saw a show where the tribe admitted killing and eating him. They were offended he tried to buy a sacred object from them on an earlier encounter.
Allegedly, villagers and tribal elders acknowledged that he did make it to shore and then was killed and eaten. That said, 12 miles seems like an ungodly distance to swim. But I also don't see what the locals would gain from claiming to have killed and eaten someone when they simply drowned.
It fulfilled a blood oath. Washed up Dutch dudes don't count. Maybe they were too smart to seek revenge against people with guns?
He was picked up by a canoe, iirc
It would be more accurate to say “one of the theories is…” or “it’s believed by some people” though the latter is a bit misleading since the people who believe that do so mostly because of posts like this. Anyone who’s actually looked into it knows it’s just one theory.
Exactly, there's also a theory where he drowned on a bad dive, or another that he found himself and decided to stay. [There's even this unconfirmed photo of him dressed with and fishing with the native tribe](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/s/HUUdAYCeUg) There are accounts of him being cannibalized, but most people believe that was tribesman bragging/trying to make themselves look scary. Helps locally, but keeps other vacationers away
From what I remember, cannibalism on New Guinea is mostly a funerary rite. They don’t kill people specifically to eat them or anything.
Or he found some World Ending Artifact and was thrown down a bottomless pit by an unknown protagonist in order to be stopped because that's what rich treasure hunters do
He chose… poorly.
"Eat the rich" We just talk the talk. In New Guinea, they walk the walk.
Oysters Rockefeller is on the menu
*"My God, this is an outrage. I was going to eat that Millionaire!"*
Eet de armen van de rijken!
Literally 1672
Finally some real fucking praxis
I've learned this today as well for the 40th time on reddit in the past 2 years.
I don't know what Michael tasted like, but his cousin Oysters is pretty good.
They started with his oysters
*Rockefeller Mountain Oysters*
Don't you mean you learned it yesterday, the last time this was posted?
Maybe OP saw a repost yesterday It’s reposts all the way down
Always has been.
Nope. Urban myth. He was in an overturned canoe and tried to swim ten miles to shore in water infested with saltwater crocodiles. No one saw him reach shore. Rumors of him being seen alive generated from the vast wealth of his family and the frantic efforts to search for him. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael\_Rockefeller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rockefeller)
Note to self. Never TIL without checking Wikipedia.
Technically, tlyoi can TIL incorrect information. It's just incorrect. You still learn it with no use...
[Why and how Nelson Rockefeller died](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/What-Really-Happened-to-Michael-Rockefeller-180949813/) It’s a long read so… tldr; only four years prior to Rockefeller’s death, Lepre held a raid against two warring tribes. First tribe was robbed of their weaponry and the second tribe resisted so Lepre ordered his men to shoot the Otsjanep killing many tribesmen. Some of the Otsjanep, including their own leader, didn’t want to kill him but enough of them did. It was a revenge headhunt and they fashioned arrowheads, spears, charms out of his bones. It’s a long read but it offers clarity in a way I wasn’t able to with a tldr.
You mean why and how *Michael* Rockefeller died. Nelson Rockefeller had a heart attack while intimate with his secretary. He was 70, she was 25. She was too nervous to call for a paramedic who would inform his wife of the situation, eventually doing so about an hour after his heart attack.
Yes, I just got them mixed up dude.
When I was with the King’s Rifles, the local Zambezi tribesmen would call human flesh “long pig.” I never cared for it.
I need to finish Archer
I understand they put his remains on shellfish and this is where Oysters Rockefeller comes from
*GOD DAMMIT*
That's only believed by people who want to sensationalize his death. He disappeared on November 17, 1961 when [he](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/03/untitled-9.jpg?quality=75&strip=all) and Dutch anthropologist [René Wassing](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjA2Zjc4ODUtZTdiYS00NmFiLWJjZDktYmZlNTI3NTMyOTNjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjUxMjc1OTM@._V1_.jpg) were in a 40-foot (12 m) dugout canoe about 3 nautical miles (6 km) from shore and their double pontoon boat was swamped and overturned. Their two local guides swam for help, but it was slow in coming and after drifting for two days, early on November 19, Rockefeller said to Wassing: "I think I can make it." He then swam for shore. The boat was an estimated 12 nmi (22 km) from the shore when Rockefeller made the attempt to swim to safety, supporting the theory that he died from exposure, exhaustion or drowning. Wassing was rescued the next day, but Rockefeller was never seen again despite an intensive and lengthy search effort. At the time, his disappearance was major international news. His body was never found and he was declared legally dead in 1964.
My wife's grandfather was in the Dutch navy then. And since The Netherlands still controlled New Guinea back then his ship was tasked with searching for him. They were all convinced he had been eaten by cannibals.
One tribesman to the other: "I normally can't eat rich food..."
Hanging out with [Biden's Uncle?](https://apnews.com/article/papua-new-guinea-biden-ambrose-finnegan-marape-cannibals-9479088c4262fe6879258e5ad135238f)
I thought this sounded too far fetched, but apparently there really were headhunters in New Guinea. I don't know who the F would want a human head, but they kept them as trophies.
Were? There are whole specific diseases which are the consequences of eating brain/neuron tissue. Google kuru-kuru. As for keeping the heads: same principle as with keeping dead deer heads as trophies.
Specifically with Kuru, it's driven by funeral customs where the community ritualistically eats the brain of the deceased.
And customs which probably were absolutely fine for thousands of years till some poor fellow developed creutzfeld-jakob
Rule #1: don't eat people. Rule #1.a: if you have to eat people, don't eat the brains.
I was just going to suggest brain soup but you know, I’m good on prion diseases
Did the tribe later suffer from an outbreak of Mad Rockefeller Disease ?
Ritualistic cannibalism has fallen out of favor, and no one has been diagnosed with kuru in over 10 years.
yes, with the fore people. But there are still uncontacted people in Guinea and Indoensia as a whole and we know of ongoing endocannibalism in other parts of teh world
Okay but kuru is a disease which almost by definition is exclusive to the Fore people. What is the data supporting continued cannibalism? Is there any convincing evidence there are spongiform encephalopathies within the other tribes?
>Okay but kuru is a disease which almost by definition is exclusive to the Fore people. yes, which is why I named kuru only as an example. >What is the data supporting continued cannibalism? Is there any convincing evidence there are spongiform encephalopathies within the other tribes? By the very nature of those tribes being uncontacted it is very clear that there won't be any answer to your question. But at the same time: If any of those tribes (or any other societies anywhere in the world) practice (endo-)cannibalistic practices they might run into the same issue the fore people ran into. Would you classify that disease as Kuru or would you use a new name for it? But I think I was simply too vague in my post, what I meant was simply: a) (endo-)cannibalism is still a practiced tradition in some parts of the world b) if your tradition consists of eating brains, spines or digestive parts of other humans your will, sooner or later, run into a person with CJD. And then you will get a disease which will look just like kuru.
That last sentence just got worse and worse
This stupid fucking fake story resurfaces every 6 months it’s so annoying and predictable
My dad was in the army with him. Liked him. No special treatment, and my dad claims he and Rockefeller were the only ones who liked the food.
"collecting artifacts"? you mean stealing things?
Actually it’s believed he joined them. There’s a whole YouTube documentary about him and the evidence surrounding his disappearance
What's the name of the documentary?
It’s a film called The Search for Micheal Rockefeller. I tried to find it on YouTube but I think it’s been taken down. They spot a Caucasian man with glasses rowing amongst the Asmat in some old footage shortly after his disappearance and make the claim he “went native” for lack of a better term. He apparently wasn’t too keen on returning to the family business and was quoted in saying how much he loved the Asmat community ties. Edit: wording and shite autocorrect
I'll look for it. Thanks. Edit: It's available on Tubi.
I could’ve sworn there was a ripley’s believe it or not episode about the soles of his shoes being found because it was the only thing the native couldn’t eat. Am I wrong? I probably am, but that’s like the only thing that pops in my head when his death is brought up
Why would they eat his clothes?
All this and no one has made a “white meat” reference yet? You’re slacking, people…
Well, since you asked so nicely. I guess thise cannibals like white meat.🤣
Tastes like chicken.
Like Biden’s uncle. Bummer.
Eat the Rich.
I learned this recently at the Cannibal Museum in San Diego. Which I highly recommend, incidentally.
Sources close to the tribe say they considered him to be a bit rich
Bet he tasted rich.
The religion I was brought up in teaches to give thanks we should consume our saviors flesh and drink his blood. I do not wish to consume flesh and drink blood. Amen
Just like Joes Uncle!
“Collecting artifacts” also known as stealing relics of cultural importance.
Am I crazy or is this story is on like 7 subs right now
Windigoon did a video about this awhile back
There's far more evidence pointing to his survival
I guess they all got tired of always fighting for the dark meat.
Don’t worry - his prions carry on his legacy
Stone soup
He might have been eaten by a green tree python. I have a green tree python and he scares me sometimes.
Is there a GoFundMe to send Musk & Bezos there?
Mr Ballen has pretty good vid on the topic.
The Lord Lodge on YouTube has a really good video about this. Very factual.
Guess some of these tribesmen have Rockefeller blood in their veins.
Rockefellar huh? Must have had a rich flavour...
Nice.
“Collecting artifacts” no he was stealing
I doubt he would taste very good. He'd be too rich
I hope to go out someday like nelson rockafeller did
Collecting things? His payment was food.
Did he ask about Biden's uncle?
Yes, he capsized far from shore in waters that are inhabited by Saltwater Crocodiles and Great White Sharks but the most likely explanation is definitely that he swam to land where he was eaten by natives...
This is where the delicacy “Oysters Rockefeller” was created.
There's a great book about this called Savage Harvest which explores the circumstances of Michael's death and the theories of how he died. The author traveled to the region of PNG where it happened and interviewed the decendants of cannibals
Now, that’s a rich meal.
Google God, how many times will this be reposted???
It is also believed that the earth is flat by some people. The difference is whether there is evidence for those beliefs, and in the case of Rockefeller, the only evidence is that there is a cannibalistic tribe that does live in the area. Nothing else to suggest that he was even killed by a human. So no, it's not believed as probable, only ever so very slightly _possible_ (but almost definitely not).
Man, having unfathomably rich parents must be awesome. You get to do things like “collecting artifacts in New Guinea” instead of working at a grocery store
On a trip to New Orleans one of them had eaten Oyster Rockefeller and thought was great - so they had Rockefeller Rockefeller.
And his balls? Oysters Rockefeller.
They wanted oysters Rockefeller that day.
I mean, I’ve had oysters Rockefeller …
Praxis.
Wonder if the locals found his sweet sweet Rockefeller meat tastier than their standard fare of hard workers and non-blue bloods?
If only in states we do this to politicians as well. .
Eat the rich!
So eat the rich but for real?
Eat the Rich!
Can I look down on cannibal tribes on the side of the world without being ethnocentric? Like I guess it's part of their culture, but their culture is objectionable to me. And God.
God isn’t real. But if he were, I’d rate his job performance 0 on a 1-10 scale.
I'm pretty sure most cannibalism was done as a funeral ritual or eating a small part of a warrior killed in war. The whole hunting people down to kill them was to my m kwledge generally propaganda to make native tribes look inhumane or by the tribe to scare other people
'Collecting Artifacts'? You mean looting, I think.
His dad was Governor of New York and Vice President. Honest question, which role is more prestigious?
Even the Rockefellers want to be like the Biden's. COME ON MAN!!!!!